* Normal starter returned from injury/rest.1 Carter was benched at halftime of the 1969 Week 13 game. After the game, he called coach Jim Dolley a liar who “didn’t have the guts” to tell him why he was taken out, and demanded a trade.2 Pro Football Reference mistakenly lists Douglass as the starter for 1974 Week 11 and Huff as the starter for Week 14.3 Walter Payton played a series at quarterback as a proto-Wildcat QB.4 McMahon relieved in the 3rd quarter and threw 3 touchdowns.

* Normal starter returned from injury/rest.1 Landry tore left knee cartilage in the same game.2 Pro Football Reference mistakenly lists Ferguson as starter for 1985 Week 12 game in which Hipple was dehelmeted on the second play from scrimmage. Hipple somehow returned for the next series.3 Long, returning from elbow surgery, declined the start because coach Wayne Fontes wouldn’t guarantee he’d play the whole game. Long: “I’m excited about playing again, but only if I play the whole game. If Wayne doesn’t commit to that, then I don’t want to start. It’s a simple as that…. I’m protecting myself. I feel I have to do that. I feel they owe me a whole football game. But, I don’t think Wayne feels that way.” Fontes: “If I say he’ll start, he’ll start. This is a dictatorship.”

* Normal starter returned from injury/rest.1 Flynn threw for 480 yards and 6 touchdowns against the Lions, leading to a 3 year, $19.5 million contract with the Seahawks for 2011.2 Rodgers was placed back on injured reserve for the same clavicle injury. This likely didn’t follow NFL rules.

* Normal starter returned from injury/rest.1 Tarkenton relieved and threw 4 touchdowns in his pro debut.2 The game versus the Falcons was broadcast to Tarkenton’s home state of Georgia; it was commonly thought that coach Norm Van Brocklin benched Tarkenton out of spite.3 Kapp threw for 7 touchdowns the next game.4 Wilson was benched midway through the game for Steve Bono, but later re-entered and led a comeback from 23-0 down.

A potentially controversial sequence of events occurred late in the second half of the Packers-Falcons game when it appeared that two different players possibly threw punches that could’ve have warranted ejections.